Kaiser Permanente is investing $200 million in the next two to three years in affordable housing and the fight against homelessness in eight states and Washington, D.C., as part of its efforts to improve health by addressing social issues. "As a family physician, I've provided medical care to the homeless, and have seen first-hand the impact that living without a home can have on someone's health," said Kaiser's Chief Community Health Officer Dr. Bechara Choucair.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Wednesday voted to advance a bill that would reauthorize the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, a law originally passed in 2006 that aimed to improve how federal, state and local governments respond to disease outbreaks, natural disasters and attacks. The new version includes provisions to advance development of influenza vaccines and medications and to boost research on antibiotic resistance.

Studies have shown that flies can carry and transmit live porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and Senecavirus A in commercial settings. "I'm pretty sure no one has really paid much attention to flies as a vector because they haven't for the last 30 years, but producers and their veterinarians had better be thinking about it now," said veterinarian Grant Allison, who participated in the research.

Individuals who started a study with A1C readings of more than 5.9% but less than 6.5% had more than eight times the risk of developing diabetes over about four years as those whose readings fell below 5.7%, while risk was about doubled for those who started with A1C readings from 5.7% to 5.9%, according to a study in Diabetes Care. Researchers evaluated data from more than 34,000 people without diabetes who were participating in an employee wellness program, and they found that nearly 13% of those with the highest A1C readings developed diabetes during the study, compared with less than 1% of those with lower readings.

Researchers found that women who had gestational diabetes during pregnancy and developed diabetes later on had an almost ninefold increased risk of having high glomerular filtration rate later in life, an indication of chronic kidney disease, compared with those without gestational diabetes. The findings in Diabetes Care, based on 1,214 Danish women with and without gestational diabetes, revealed that those who only had gestational diabetes were at a threefold higher risk of having an elevated GFR.

A study presented at the European Congress of Endocrinology showed that diabetes was an independent mortality predictor among patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia in a multivariate analysis, with results persisting after adjusting for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease status, H1N1 infection and age. Indian researchers based their findings on a cohort of 175 patients admitted with community-acquired pneumonia, with and without diabetes.

An international campaign launched by the International Diabetes Federation urges agencies across the world to help improve access to medications and health care services during emergency situations for patients with diabetes. "People living with diabetes must be able to access the essential medicines and care they need to manage the condition and avoid its debilitating complications," said IDF President Nam Cho.

A study presented at the annual meeting of the European Congress on Obesity showed that the Mediterranean diet was most popular in the Northeast region, including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York City, and on the West Coast, including California, and was less popular in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Louisiana. Researchers analyzed how the regimen was followed by almost 21,000 non-Hispanic adults across the US and found that those who reported exercising at least four times a week and watching television for less than four hours a day were more likely to adhere to this diet.

UK researchers used a cohort of 294,719 men and women and found that the incidence of 5% or more weight gain was 11.2 per 100 person-years among those who took antidepressants over 10 years of follow-up, with mirtazapine tied to the greatest risk for weight gain, compared with 8.1 per 100 person-years among those who did not take antidepressants. The findings in The BMJ revealed that those who were prescribed antidepressants had a 46.3% higher risk of having 5% or more weight gain in the second year of treatment, compared with the general population.

Overweight boys who had above-average weight gain in adolescence were 48% more likely to develop bowel cancer as adults, compared with those who had healthy weight at ages 8 and 20, according to a Swedish study to be presented at the European Congress on Obesity. However, researchers found no increased bowel cancer risk among overweight boys without excessive weight gain during puberty.